Augmenting the mental toughness of players, reorganising domestic cricket, improving the standard of pitches, setting up of regional cricket associations are the key elements for the improvement of Bangladesh’s cricket, speakers said at a seminar on Wednesday.
   Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh organised the seminar titled ‘Bangladesh Cricket: – the Present Reality and Future Course of Action’ at the National Press Club auditorium.
   Moderated by former cricketer Shakil Kasem, the seminar was attended by the present and former officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, former national captains, coaches, umpires and senior cricket journalists.
   ‘I see a very little hope unless we change our mentality drastically. There is no bridge between the Under-19 and national cricket team, which is so crucial. We have to concentrate on improving the skills of our age-level cricketers instead of playing so many matches,’ said former captain Roquibul Hassan.
   ‘When I see Mohammad Asharful and Adam Gilchrest playing the same shot, I see hardly any difference in their style. But I see a lot of difference in their mentality and shot selection. We must improve it,’ said former captain Aminul Islam.
   ‘Our players hardly get a chance to practise. You cannot expect a player to bat four hours if he spends only 15 minutes in the net three times a week. We have to practise a little longer. This is the only way to improve a player’s mental toughness,’ added another former skipper Khaled Mahmud.
   ‘Our players have a defeatist mentality. They barely realise the pains after losing a game. This attitude must be changed. Players must pay the price for their failure as they represent the nation,’ journalist Mostafa Mamun said at the seminar.
   While some of the speakers skippers kept their focus on the national team many others shifted their attention to overall development, especially improving the standard of wicket by involving the students of soil science.
   However, Osman Khan, a veteran local coach, differed saying wicket hardly matters if one has the skill. ‘We have seen foreign players making a fifty coming here just a day earlier without any knowledge about the nature of the wicket. It doesn’t matter on which strip you are playing if you have the skills,’ he said.
   ‘Bangladesh have got the Test status at a premature stage. We have to improve the standard of our domestic cricket if we really want to take our game forward,’ Raisuddin Ahmed, a former general secretary.
   ‘We left the office for the sake of reform within the BCB. But so far we haven’t seen any initiative in this regard. The BCB must spread its organisation at the regional level by forming regional cricket bodies,’ said former general secretary Mahbub Anam.
   ‘We trained a lot of level 1, level 2 coaches. We must utilise them,’ said Khondoker Jamiluddin, another former BCB official.

The ICC cricket committee, whose two-day meeting in Dubai finished today, has recommended that trials of umpire review systems be approved by the full ICC board when it meets in July.
   The move was given approval in March and involves greater use of technology and the ability for teams to refer a maximum of three decisions to the third umpire. A similar experiment was tried in English domestic one-day cricket last season but was widely considered unsuccessful.
   The committee recommended that players ‘should be permitted to ask the on-field umpire to review any aspect of any other decision in consultation with the third umpire’, and that Hawkeye should be used – but only to determine the path of the ball, up to the point that it struck the batsman.
   In addition, the committee cast its eye over a number of playing conditions, notably the so-called ‘comfort break’ which fielding teams increasingly use. It was the committee’s recommendation that substitute fielders ‘should only be permitted in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons’. The three other suggested changes to the playing conditions were:
   *In ODIs, the timing of one Powerplay should be decided by the batting side and three fielders should be permitted outside the fielding restriction circles for both the second and third Powerplays
   *The on-field umpires should be permitted to consult the third umpire as to whether a catch has been taken cleanly before making the final decision themselves
   *The bowl-out in the event of a tie in the ICC World Twenty20 or Champions Trophy should be replaced by a one-over-per-team play-off
   The committee’s recommendations will be forwarded to the chief executive’s committee for approval, although that is no guarantee that they will be accepted as several made in 2007 were rejected out of hand.
   The committee also held a lengthy debate on cricket’s rapidly changing landscape, ‘in light of the fact that there are now three viable forms of the game at international level (Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals)’. While accepting the one-dayers and Twenty20s have earned their place, the group identified Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport ‘and expressed the need for the best available participants (players, umpires, referees etc) to be involved in international cricket’.
   It also recommended the ICC considers a Test league, or periodic play-off for the top two sides in the Test Championship.
   The group was chaired by Sunil Gavaskar and included Mark Taylor, the former Australia captain; South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur and Michael Holding, the former West Indies fast bowler. Other notable attendees were Simon Taufel, the Australian umpire; Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain and Tim May, the chief executive of the players’ representative body, FICA.

Following in the footsteps of a great player is never easy, but Brad Haddin is ready to replace Adam Gilchrist and make his Test debut in two weeks. Haddin is the only gloveman in Australia’s 15-man squad for the West Indies tour and unless injury hits he will become the country’s 400th Test representative in the opening match in Jamaica from May 22.
   Haddin, who has been fine-tuning with his team-mates at the camp in Brisbane, will also be required to perform a vital batting role as Australia begin life without Gilchrist. Nobody benefited more from the surprise retirement of Gilchrist in January than Haddin, 30, and he is about to get the chance to prove he is a capable replacement.
   ‘I haven’t thought too much about that,’ he said. ‘I haven’t really felt like I’m going into Adam’s shoes. If you ask me a day out before the Test I might answer differently, but I’ve just concentrated on myself, making sure I can prepare the best I can.’
   Part of that plan was not going to the IPL so he could be ready for something he has waited a decade to achieve. Despite joking he was the ‘idiot that said no’ to the bags of money, he knew protecting himself for the West Indies was much more important.
   ‘I wanted to have five weeks to get ready to be a Test player,’ he said. ‘I’d been waiting ten years, if something had have happened over there [in India] I don’t think I could have lived with myself.’
   Haddin’s path to the Test team has involved 29 ODIs and 89 first-class games and he is the model of a modern wicketkeeper. His batting is so full of energy - he scored three Pura Cup hundreds last summer and has an ODI strike-rate of almost 80 - that his glovework is often overlooked. However, he has kept a lot to Lee, Clark, MacGill and Bollinger, his New South Wales team-mates in the national squad, and averaged almost five first-class dismissals a match in 2007-08.
   ‘Adam’s changed the perception of a wicketkeeper,’ he said.
   ‘Before you had to be solid with the gloves and contribute with bat. Now you have to be a genuine allrounder. Keeping is always the No. 1 priority, but you have to be able to contribute a lot more with the bat.’
   The new, big role has not convinced Haddin to alter his approach. ‘I’m going to play the way I have for the last ten years,’ he said. ‘It’s as simple as that. I’m not going to change a thing because I’m playing Test cricket. I’m going to play the same way as I have in one-dayers for Australia and four-day games with New South Wales.’
   Fortunately for Haddin, he knows how Australia operate after being a regular tourist over the past couple of years, including at the 2007 World Cup. ‘The wait is very beneficial,’ he said. ‘I got picked seven years ago and I wasn’t ready to play. Now I feel confident in what I do and where my game’s at. Having had ten years’ experience at first-class level, hopefully I can take it across to Test cricket and feel comfortable there.’
   An added advantage of the current set up is Tim Nielsen, the coach, is a former wicketkeeper for South Australia. During the opening day of the camp the pair completed a one-on-one session when Haddin was shaking off any rust that built up since the Pura Cup final win in March. Nielsen literally wanted Haddin ‘on his toes’ when he was collecting catches at Allan Border Field. He will need a similar attitude during the three Tests against West Indies.

Lord’s could stage neutral Test matches and matches in the proposed Twenty20 Champions League to assist the MCC in fund raising as it plans to spend up to £200 million to redevelop the ground ahead of its bicentenary in 2014.
   A report it the Guardian today says that a number of proposals are being considered by Keith Bradshaw, the MCC’s secretary and chief executive, after a whistlestop visit to India over the weekend.
   Bradshaw met with Lalit Modi, the IPL’s commissioner, in Mohali and the possibility of bringing the Twenty20 Champions League to London was discussed. The main stumbling block appears to be the timing as the event can only be played after the ICC Champions Trophy which finishes in late September. ‘The MCC was positive about the idea and are eager to proceed, subject to ECB clearance,’ an IPL official told Cricinfo.
   The Guardian also claimed that the possibility of Pakistan playing Australia at Lord’s had been raised earlier in the year after the Australians’ tour of Pakistan had been scrapped on security grounds.
   ‘It is our heartbeat to have major matches, so as well as our England Tests and ODIs we have to look at whether there is the potential to stage other sorts of cricket here such as neutral Test matches,’ Bradshaw, who could face some tough questions at the MCC’s annual meeting later today, told the newspaper. ‘We would be very open to staging neutral Tests and, in terms of embracing what’s been mooted in terms of IPL, the Champions League or the English Premier League, why not? We have a very open mind.’
   While the ECB, who would need to be consulted before any other matches could be staged at Lord’s, might not object to the Twenty20 Champions League being held in London, it would probably take a dimmer view of neutral Tests for fear of the impact they might have on the traditional summer fixtures.
   However, Lord’s is under threat as a venue because of the ECB’s new strategy of allocating international matches which has seen traditional venues struggle to get high-profile fixtures with games being switched to new centres such as Cardiff and Southampton. That has led to speculation that Lord’s, which in recent years has hosted two Tests every summer, might only get one as more venues fight for the limited number of matches.
   ‘We would prefer to know exactly what our major matches are going to be for the next 10 years, given that we are spending £200m on the ground, but we have moved to a very commercial situation where our fellow grounds are no longer our family but our competitors in a bidding process,’ Bradshaw said. ‘We bid a lot more for those matches than we ever have before. We will take account of what the ECB is trying to achieve and we are conscious of player fixtures and broadcasting contracts, but we have a very open mind and we would be very keen to host a Champions League event.’

Deccan Chargers (148/3) beat Chennai Super Kings (144/7) by seven wickets
   The Chennai Super Kings have plenty to ponder after losing to the Deccan Chargers by seven wickets, their third successive defeat. Their top order failed again and their total of 144 was easily overhauled by Deccan, inspired by a blazing 54 by stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist. Besides struggling to come to terms with the loss of their big-hitting overseas batsmen, Chennai’s bowling, which has taken only seven wickets in the last three matches, is also a cause for concern.
   Deccan’s bowlers exploited the helpful conditions early on to slice through the Chennai top order. Just as in the previous two matches, the batsmen floundered against the moving ball in the first over. Parthiv Patel troubles with the bat continued as he survived a close lbw call first ball, was dropped by the bowler P Vijaykumar off the fourth, before RP Singh took a fine running catch to dismiss him sixth ball. S Anirudh, son of former India batsman Kris Srikkanth, fell soon after, miscueing a pull off RP.
   Stephen Fleming was just about getting into his groove when his rasping square drive off his former New Zealand team-mate Scott Styris was smartly held by Rohit Sharma at cover point. And when S Badrinath was spectacularly held at backward point by Herschelle Gibbs in the seventh over, Chennai were in shambles at 43 for 4.
   Suresh Raina, who was playing fluently when the wickets were tumbling around him, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, were again called on rebuild the innings. There was some tidy, but not threatening bowling from Sanjay Bangar and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha as Chennai progressed to 82 without any hiccups. Raina unleashed some lovely straight drives while Dhoni sensibly cut out the risks and kept the ball on the ground.
   However, both Raina and Dhoni were dismissed in the space of nine balls and Chennai were in danger of being bowled out for the second game in succession. Raina once again failed to capitalise on his start, spooning a wide full toss from Bangar to cover. Dhoni had been tied down by Ojha and perished when an attempted pull took a bottom edge and ballooned off his pads to Shahid Afridi at point.
   As in his previous two knocks, Albie Morkel needed to haul his team out of the hole created by top order. The crowd had been chanting for a six and there had been none till the 17th over, when a monstrous hit from Morkel sent the ball out of the stadium. Four more sixes came off the last four overs, including two in the final one by Manpreet Gony, as Chennai pushed their score to 145.
   After a quiet start to the chase, Gibbs showed glimpses of his striking abilities, lashing Makhaya Ntini for a six over cover and a four to midwicket, before being caught-and-bowled by the impressive Gony. Gilchrist, leading the side after VVS Laxman suffered a hand injury, had also been tied down by Gony but got going with a couple of pulled boundaries off Albie Morkel in the fourth over. He then tore into Ntini: the first ball was sent into the stands over his favourite midwicket area, the second was a lofted straight drive which ran away for four and the third was smashed back over the bowler’s head for six. Twenty runs came in that over and Deccan had raced to 50 for 1 by the end of the sixth.
   With Styris, promoted to No. 3, playing a steady hand at the other end, Gilchrist kept the barrage of boundaries coming before he cut a short and wide delivery from Morkel straight to Badrinath at point. By then, the required-rate had come down to around six - leisurely by Twenty20 standards.
   Rohit struggled initially against Muttiah Muralitharan but slammed a 17-ball 23, including a stunning straight six to reclaim the orange cap for being the tournament’s highest cumulative run-scorer. Styris remained unbeaten on 36 as Afridi smashed Joginder Sharma for two sixes and two fours in an over to complete the victory.
   This is Deccan’s second win and it lifts them off the bottom of the table. The most heartening aspect of the win was that their batting clicked as a unit, unlike the several games in which it was left to one batsman to carry the innings.

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was acquitted of speeding Tuesday because his prosecution notice did not arrive within the 14-day deadline.
   The 30-year-old was caught on camera driving at 87 miles (140 kilometres) per hour in a 50mph zone on a motorway near Liverpool, northwest England, on July 1 last year.
   But his lawyer Nick Freeman told magistrates in the city that the prosecution had not followed procedures correctly. The prosecution then said they would offer no evidence against the Lancashire player.
   Freeman, who has earned the nickname ‘Mister Loophole’ for exposing procedural discrepancies in speeding cases often involving high-profile figures, said outside court that the prosecution notice arrived on July 19.
   ‘It is fundamental in any speeding case that the notice is sent and received within 14 days,’ he added.
   Flintoff, who has been plagued by injury in the last year, said nothing to waiting media but Freeman said his client was ‘relieved’ at the decision and could now concentrate on his cricket.

Cross-dressing prostitutes lied when they accused AC Milan striker Ronaldo of using drugs and having sex with them during a motel encounter last week, police said Tuesday.
   The prostitutes told police they lied because Ronaldo did not want to pay them after finding out they were men, police inspector Carlos Augusto Nogueira said.
   When first interrogated by authorities after the April 28 encounter with Ronaldo, the prostitutes said the player had sex with them and asked one of them to buy drugs for him.
   Ronaldo vehemently denied the accusations and said one of the prostitutes tried to extort money from him to keep the story out of the media. He said he offered to pay the prostitutes even after finding out they were men, but one of them demanded more than offered.
   ‘There was no sex or drugs that night,’ Nogueira said, adding that one of the prostitutes might still be charged with extortion.
   Nogueira said the prostitutes fabricated details of the encounter to try to take advantage of Ronaldo’s fame.
   In a nationally televised interview on Sunday, Ronaldo said he was sorry, embarrassed and ashamed for his ‘stupid act.’
   The three-time FIFA Player of the Year said he ‘made the stupidest mistake ever.’
   The case quickly made front-page headlines across Brazil and led to speculation that Ronaldo could lose some of his sponsors.
   UNICEF issued a statement Monday saying Ronaldo – who is in Brazil recovering from knee injury – has never been one of its ambassadors, contrary to what the striker had said in the television interview.

Sajid Mahmood has told the BBC that he believes it is only a matter of time before England players put the Indian Premier League ahead of representing their country.
   ‘A lot of people on the circuit are saying the IPL is the way forward,’ Mahmood said. ‘My aim is and always has been to play for England, but if you’re not getting in the side the IPL is a big carrot.’
   He said that two IPL franchises had approached him but, so far, he had rejected their overtures as he still has ambitions to play more for England. ‘That’s the reason why I got into cricket in the first place and the desire is still burning brightly. I’m only 26, I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me in the game, and it would be great to spend those years representing my country and taking wickets ... [but] if things don’t work out, the IPL is a massive draw. There’s a hell of a lot of money on offer out there and a cricketer’s career is a short one.
   ‘There’s not much I or anyone can really do at the moment, though, with the way things are. My aim is by the end of this year, three-quarters into the season, to be back in the England side. If not then I can start having a chat and see about looking at my options.’
   Mahmood’s comments come a day after Ravi Bopari said that he had turned down IPL offers. Last month, Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, sent a clear message that players would not be allowed to join the IPL if it impinged on the English season, but that stance appears to becoming increasingly isolated and risks causing a showdown between players and board.
   ‘If players can go out there, benefit financially as well as test themselves against the top players in the world, they can come back better for it,’ Mahmood told the BBC. ‘It’s only three or four weeks out of the season.’

Lowly Afghanistan stunned hosts and group favorites Kyrgyzstan 1-0 in a group C match of the AFC Challenge Cup at the Bishkek stadium on Wednesday. With the win Afghanistan with four points from two matches ensconced themselves in a comfortable position for place in the final round in Hyderabad, India.
   The 38th minute winner of Afghanistan also threw Kyrgyzstan out as they have no chance even if they beat Bangladesh in the last match.
   Afghanistan drew goalless with Bangladesh in their opening game and upset the hosts on Wednesday. They are almost through to the final round as only Bangladesh can dislodge them with a 2-0 win over Kyrgyzstan on Friday. If Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan draw then Afghanistan qualify.

Dhaka Mohammedan and Sonali Bank earned identical 2-0 victories overs Wari and Bangladesh Sporting in the Green Delta Insurance Metropolis Premier Division Hockey League at the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.
   Both the team registered their third consecutive victory to earn full nine points joining Abahani and Usha at the top of the table.
   Zahid Bin Talib Shuvo scored the first goal for Mohammedan in the 44th minute and Quamruzzaman Rana doubled the margin in the 63rd minute from a penalty corner.
   In the day’s second match, Alamgir Hossain and Krishna Kumar scored for the bankers in the 33rd minute and 52nd minute.

Hosts Sylhet emerged as zonal champions to reach the final round of the 28th National Cricket Championship defeating Moulvibazar by 35 runs in the zonal final at the Sylhet Stadium on Wednesday.
   Batting first, Sylhet were all out scoring 218 runs in 49.3 overs. In reply, Moulvibazar were bundled out for 183 in 47 overs.
   Four teams — Bogra, Tangail, Rajbari and Chittagong advanced to the zonal finals winning their respective semi-finals at different venues on Wednesday.
   At the Bogra Stadium, hosts Bogra (175 in 48.3 overs) smartly booked a seat for the zonal final with a comfortable 82-run victory over Joypurhat (93 in 37.3).
   At the Tangail Stadium, hosts Tangail (143/3 in 28.2 overs) beat Gazipur DSA (142/9 in 50) by seven wickets.
   At the Faridpur Stadium, Rajbari (168/5 in 42 overs) defeated Munshiganj (167 in 47.1 overs) by five wickets.
   At the Comilla Stadium, Chittagong (135 in 33.5 overs) beat Brahmanbaria DSA (123 in 46.3 overs) by 12 runs.
   Besides, three more teams, Jhalakati, Pabna and Jhenidah advanced to the zonal semi-finals eliminating their rivals at different venues across the country on Wednesday.
   Jhalakati (121/5 in 29.1 overs) defeated Pirojpur (143 in 36.2 overs) in a curtailed over match at the Patuakhali Stadium, Jhenidah (194/6 in 45.5 overs) upset hosts Jessore (191 in 49.2 overs) beating them by four wickets at the Jessore Stadium while Pabna (243/8 in 50 overs) beat Chapainawabganj (209 in 48.1) at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium.

The nature of the Twenty20 format is such that it leaves an extremely small margin for error – and almost none at the top. The failure of the Chennai Super Kings’ top order after the departure of Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey has been the primary reason for their slip from No 1 in the points table to No 4. The replacements, Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel and a rotating No 3 – they’ve tried S Vidyut and S Anirudha – have failed to provide direction to the innings.
   Each of Chennai’s first four victories had one of their top three make a significant contribution. Hussey scored 116 against the Kings XI Punjab and 47 against Bangalore Royal Challengers, while Hayden made 81 against the Mumbai Indians and 70 against the Kolkata Knight Riders. In their next three games, apart from a 54 from Vidyut – who did not dominate the Delhi Daredevils bowling attack – only once has a top-order batsman passed 20. In their two most recent defeats, Chennai were reduced to 11 for 3 against the Rajasthan Royals, and 33 for 3 against the Deccan Chargers.
   ‘We have to settle down as a side,’ Dhoni said after the defeat against Deccan. ‘Our top-order batsmen played too many shots. They were in two minds whether to go for the shot or not and ultimately lost their wickets playing their shots late. We could not get the right combinations in the last three matches but we should not panic. It is not individuals but we have to work as a team.’
   The top-order collapses have put additional pressure on the middle, which comprises stroke-makers such as Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Albie Morkel. They’ve had to be cautious and minimise risk for fear of losing cheap middle order wickets and being dismissed within 20 overs, inexcusable in the Twenty20 format. And without taking a few risks, it is difficult to maintain a run-rate of around nine an over for a par score in the IPL.
   The batting failures have affected their bowling. The low totals in the last three games – 169, 110 and 144 – mean the opposition batsmen aren’t under pressure to maintain a high run-rate from the start. Dhoni has repeatedly said that their bowling is weaker than their batting and the fact that their opponents aren’t under pressure has curbed their wicket-taking abilities. Chennai have managed only seven wickets in their last three games and only one inside the first five overs. Their most experienced fast bowler, Makhaya Ntini, hasn’t taken a wicket yet and each time their opponents get off to solid starts, the fewer are the risks they have to take against Murali.
   The problem for Chennai, though, is that they do not have many alternatives from those who are already playing. Parthiv has scored 96 runs in seven innings but apart from Vidyut and the Under-19 opener Abhinav Mukund, there are no other specialists in the squad. Fleming has also had three consecutive failures but Chennai have no more than four overseas players – Morkel, Murali and Ntini being the other three – so he will continue to play.
   Dhoni’s options are limited. He said that Chennai would ‘try different combinations but there wouldn’t be many changes’.

Argentina remains atop the largely unchanged FIFA world rankings.
   With just 20 international games affecting the monthly list released Wednesday, Argentina stayed ahead of fierce rival Brazil, with Italy, Spain and Germany rounding out the top five.
   Argentina’s lead over Brazil was trimmed from 10 to 2 points as rankings points from older matches were either devalued or lost. The only change in the top 20 was Cameroon’s jump over Mexico to 16th.
   The Czech Republic, France, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands continued to fill out places six through 10, and no team in the top 50 rose or fell by more than two places.
   All six confederations also have the same leading team as last month: Argentina, Italy, Ghana (14th), Mexico, Japan (37th) and New Zealand (78th).
   Only Mozambique and Lebanon have gained more than five places.
   While the African team rose seven places to No. 71, Lebanon picked up two wins over the lowly Maldives in qualifying for the 2011 Asian Cup to move up eight places to No. 140.

Milan president Silvio Berlusconi is no longer interested in signing Barcelona’s Ronaldinho following the capture of France midfielder Mathieu Flamini on a free transfer.
   The Italian giants looked set to sign the out-of-favour Brazil playmaker but have backtracked after failing to agree a transfer fee with the Catalan club.
   Milan were reportedly prepared to offer 20 million euros for the 28-year-old but Barca were said to have demanded twice that amount.
   And after 24-year-old Flamini arrived from Arsenal on Monday night, Berlusconi admitted outright he has no intention of pursuing Ronaldinho.
   ‘Flamini is the best midfielder in Europe and I’m not interested in Ronaldinho,’ Berlusconi told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
   Instead it seems the Rossoneri are set to turn their attention to another Frenchman - Bayern Munich’s Willy Sagnol.
   According to another Italian newspaper, Corriere dello Sport, the two clubs have agreed terms for the right-back.
   However, Sagnol has claimed a deal is yet to decided and revealed another top club are also interested in his services.
   ‘The Milan directors have been coming back for me on a regular basis for the past six years and I’m very proud to be getting such attention,’ he told French newspaper L’Equipe.
   ‘But when it comes to transfers things can happen very quickly. AC Milan and another massive European club, but not an Italian one, are interested in me.
   ‘All I can say is that I’ll make my choice before Euro 2008, which is my big objective. I want to be calm when I get there.’

Arsene Wenger has voiced his disappointment at Mathieu Flamini’s decision to quit Arsenal for AC Milan but insisted the midfielder’s departure does not herald the start of a more significant exodous from the Emirates Stadium.
   Flamini cashed in on his status as a free agent by walking out on the Gunners at the end of a season which had seen the 24-year-old establish himself as the ‘water carrier’ for Cesc Fabregas in the Arsenal midfield.
   Arsenal were not prepared to breach their wages ceiling to match the terms on offer at Milan and Flamini, who is French of Italian origin, opted to move to the country of his parents.
   Arsenal fans are now fretting over whether Alexander Hleb, a target for Internazionale, will also leave north London, as well as having to endure the recurring rumours about Spain’s top clubs wanting to bring Fabregas home.
   Wenger however is confident that optimism about the potential of his current squad should keep it largely together, despite the wilting of their league and Champions League campaigns in the last two months.
   ‘It is a problem - the salaries on offer - but we did not master this situation with Flamini because when a player is out of contract he can sign where he wants,’ Wenger told Arsenal shareholders.
   ‘I must say I am disappointed that he did that - but legally he can do it. But I hope that 95 percent of the team, the core of the team, says ‘come on, we have only just lost’.
   ‘And it is ‘just’, because we were leading at Manchester United, we were leading at Chelsea and we were leading at Liverpool in the Champions League - and every time we just lost a little bit of focus and lost the game.
   ‘Let’s come back and show we are winners. That is the real target of the team.’
   Wenger predicted that his squad will bounce back strongly next term.
   ‘We were close this year, but we did not win and what I expect from my team is that, if you are a winner, you say ‘let’s come back next year and win’.
   ‘If our players are not capable of doing that and just want to walk out for bigger contracts, for me that would be the biggest disappointment.
   ‘If you are a winner you say ‘you beat me now in a game but give me a chance to come back and beat you’. That’s what I expect of a team.
   ‘If they cannot do that then it means I was wrong completely in my whole judgement of this team.
   ‘That would be the biggest disappointment for the club - not only to not win this year but to not be capable of coming back together.’
   Flamini’s move to Milan has sparked suggestions that Gennaro Gattuso, a Champions League and World Cup winner in the same position, could be tempted by a move in the opposite direction.
   Gattuso, who made his name in a spell at Glasgow Rangers, has often spoken of his desire to play in the Premier League.
   Arsenal are also being linked with a potential summer move for Croatia midfielder Niko
   Kranjcar, who has had an outstanding season for Portsmouth and is set to be one of the stars of Euro 2008.

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson will be in charge for his team’s tour of Asia this month, a report said Wednesday, as speculation mounts that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be his successor.
   Club owner Thaksin Shinawatra is in Thailand and was asked about Eriksson Wednesday, but only smiled in response as he prepared to board a plane for China to play golf.
   However, City spokesman Paul Tyrell was quoted in the Bangkok Post as saying the Swede would be on the tour that includes matches in Thailand on May 17 and Hong Kong on May 22.
   ‘The media speculation (about Eriksson’s fate) does not affect the visit. Mr Eriksson will be attending,’ said Tyrell.
   Asked if Eriksson would remain at the club, Tyrell said no official announcement had been made and that Thaksin would conduct a full review at the end of the season.
   The English Premier League club play their final game of the current campaign against Middlesbrough this weekend.
   Former Thai premier Thaksin is widely expected to fire Eriksson even though he will deliver on the target of a top-half finish during his first season in charge at Eastlands.
   Thaksin’s lack of support for the former England manager has angered many City fans who almost unanimously came out in support of the Swede in the 1-0 defeat at Liverpool at the weekend.
   But his days appear numbered with English newspapers reporting Wednesday that City have offered Portugal coach Scolari a package worth 3.2 million pounds a year (6.3 million dollars) to succeed Eriksson.
   The Times of London said Thaksin has demanded an answer from Scolari before the Brazilian leads Portugal into the European Championship finals next month.
   It said Scolari was understood to be interested, but would prefer to wait until after the finals in Austria and Switzerland before making a decision on his future.
   City arrive in Thailand on May 14 to open a club store before playing against the Thailand Premier All-Stars on May 17.
   The team will then relax in the resort of Pattaya before leaving on May 20 for matches in Hong Kong against a South China XI and Italian giants Juventus.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, reportedly the target of English Premier League side Manchester City, is unlikely to decide on his future before Euro 2008, a source close to the Brazilian said.
   British media reported on Wednesday that Manchester City have made an offer to
   Scolari and that the deadline for him to accept is before the start of the Euro 2008 finals next month.
   ‘It is very unlikely that Scolari makes any decision now, one month ahead of the championship,’ the source said on Wednesday.
   The Portuguese Federation would not comment.
   Scolari, who joined Portugal in 2003, has told the Portuguese media he would only discuss his future after Euro 2008.
   Speculation surrounds the future of Manchester City coach Sven-Goran Eriksson with British media reporting the former England coach
   would resign or be sacked after City’s Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra said he was unhappy with the club’s form and wanted change.
   Last week, Eriksson’s agent said the Swede would unlikely still be Manchester City manager next season.

AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso would fit in perfectly at Bayern Munich, club president Franz Beckenbauer has said.
   Gattuso said last week he would consider his future at the end of the season. Milan have struggled this term, lying fourth in Serie A having been knocked out of the Champions League as holders by Arsenal in the last-16.
   ‘Is it true that Gattuso wants to leave Milan? I like him. He would be an important player for Bayern in the Champions League. Or rather he would be perfect,’ Beckenbauer told Wednesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport.
   Another Italian, Luca Toni, has thrilled Bayern this season with 21 league goals in their run to the Bundesliga title.
   Media reports have reported Milan may be considering a bid but Beckenbauer said Toni was not for sale.
   ‘We are happy with him, very happy in fact. He is a goal machine. Toni will help Bayern to win the Champions League again as soon as possible,’ he said.
   Beckenbauer also doubted Bayern were looking at Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey to replace retiring goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.
   ‘I don’t think there are talks to buy the Fiorentina keeper,’ he said.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter will propose stricter rules on switching nationalities later this month to prevent World Cup finals becoming dominated by Brazilians. The head of world soccer’s governing body said many countries, notably in Africa and Europe, had abused the current rules whereby a player can play for a country other than the one of their birth if he has lived in a country for at least two years, or has a parent or grandparent who was born there.
   ‘I am not a prophet but I can say that in the World Cup in 2014 half of the players could come from Brazil and we have to introduce a higher hurdle to stop this,’ Blatter told reporters on a conference call.
   ‘The executive committee will propose to the congress that a player only after five years can become a football citizen of a country.’
   The proposal will require at least 75 per cent support at the congress in Sydney on May 29, where FIFA’s 208 member associations who are eligible to vote have one vote each.
   In 2004, FIFA was forced to tighten its rules after three Brazilian players chose to represent Qatar in their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign despite having no connection with the country.
   Despite the crackdown, many countries and players have continued to make the most of the two-year window, most
   recently Arsenal’s Brazilian-born midfielder Eduardo da Silva, who plays for Croatia due to his time spent playing for Dinamo Zagreb.
   The proposal to increase the restrictions on switching nationalities is part of Blatter’s overall plan to reduce the number of foreign footballers playing abroad.
   Blatter said on Wednesday he intended to forge ahead with his controversial proposal to limit teams to five foreign nationals on the pitch, which the European Union says conflicts with its laws on the free movement of players, risking court action.
   ‘Yes, what I want is to get a mandate from congress,’ Blatter said on the conference call.
   The FIFA chief confirmed a Reuters report of last month that he would seek ‘gentleman’s agreements’ with the 208 associations, including those in Europe, in a bid to bypass the EU.
   ‘Concerning the different leagues and clubs…if the national associations give me the mandate then I will give back the mandate to the associations to reach agreement with their leagues and clubs,’ Blatter said.

Chelsea’s top players will pocket nearly £600,000 each in bonuses if they win both the Barclays Premier League and European Cup. Owner Roman Abramovich will fork out nearly £14.5 million in incentives if the team complete the dream double.
   If they pip Manchester United to the Premier League title on Sunday’s dramatic final day of the season, the payment schedule drawn up at the start of the season authorises a £2.6m bonus to be shared among the squad.
   Some of the players will then earn up to another £369,000 each if they go on to beat United in the Champions League final in Moscow a fortnight Wednesday.
   The bonus scheme is operated on a pro-rata basis and means that Joe Cole and Claude Makelele, the only two players to have participated in all Chelsea’s 12 Champions League matches this season, stand to make the most money.
   Cole will pocket £217,000 if they win the Premier League and a further £369,000 if they lift the European Cup – a total of £586,000.
   Chelsea will have paid £9.36m in Champions League bonuses if they win the competition and just over £5m will have been paid to the squad in incentives should they win the Premier League.
   Manchester United players can earn bonuses of up to £100,000 for winning the Champions League and up to £200,000 for lifting the European Cup.
   Chelsea’s players, who are already paid up to £130,000 a week, agreed their bonus structure with chief executive Peter Kenyon before the start of the season.
   Each Champions League victory in the group stages was rewarded with a £10,000 bonus. The side which drew against Rosenborg 1-1 in Jose Mourinho’s last game were paid £3,000 as part of the incentive scheme.
   The riches on offer increase as Chelsea progress. The 25-man Champions League squad shared a £500,000 bonus for finishing top of their group and were on £15,000 a win and £5,000 a man for the second-round draw against Olympiacos.
   Similar sums were paid after they won their quarter-final clash against Fenerbahce and they also distributed a £750,000 prize pool among the squad registered with UEFA.
   The Champions League squad shared a £1.5m bonus for beating Liverpool in the semi-final last week and a further £3m is up for grabs between the 25 players in the squad for Moscow.
   Chelsea’s players are paid £5,000 for each Premier League victory, provided they are in the top four, and £1,000 for each point in the league.
   Around £3m will be shared between the squad if they win the title on Sunday. Despite the potential to win a third Premier League title, Chelsea’s players have not made any preparations for the prospect.
   Chelsea manager Avram Grant has given his players Monday and Tuesday off next week before they begin their build-up for Moscow.
   Monday’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle ensured the title race would continue until the last day of the season, when United visit Wigan and Chelsea entertain Bolton.
   Ricardo Carvalho’s fitness will be assessed on Wednesday after the defender was withdrawn 11 minutes from time at Newcastle with a back problem.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter renewed his campaign Wednesday to stop European soccer clubs from hoarding most of the world’s best players.
   Blatter said European clubs were ‘drying out’ soccer in Africa by signing the best young players and preventing professional leagues from developing.
   ‘It cannot be that only one continent will be the focus of all football,’ Blatter said in a conference call with reporters.
   Blatter was outlining his plans for a ‘six plus five’ rule, which would force clubs by 2012 to field at least six homegrown players in their starting lineups and limit the number of foreigners to five.
   The FIFA president believes the rule will reverse the trend among some of Europe’s elite clubs – including Arsenal, Chelsea and Inter Milan – to field teams entirely made up of foreign players.
   Blatter has railed against the practice in the past, but no international rules are currently in place to prevent teams from ignoring players in their own countries.
   ‘If there is a FIFA regulation that there shall be this six-plus-five system, then players in Africa and Asia and especially South America will stay home,’ Blatter said. ‘It will be good for the development of football.’
   He said soccer federations outside Europe supported his plan ‘because the other continents are the suppliers of all the players in Europe.’
   ‘We are now stimulating new leagues where players can earn their living decently,’ he said. ‘At the same time we are fighting, let us say, the drying out of local leagues in Africa.’
   Blatter said African soccer federations were in favour of his plan when it was discussed at a January meeting in Ghana, even though it could mean that some African players would lose their positions with top clubs. Blatter also believes the rule can be good for soccer in Europe. He wants it to help restore the traditional identity of clubs and national leagues, and strengthen national teams by offering more opportunities to homegrown players.
   Even in England, which has been criticised by Blatter for monopolising talent, there were calls for restrictions on foreign players after the national team failed to qualify for next month’s European Championship.
   But Blatter is not supported by European soccer’s governing body UEFA and European Union lawmakers, who say it would be illegal to prevent the free movement of players.
   UEFA favours a rule on ‘locally trained’ players which would set a quota of players, of any nationality, on the roster who have been with the club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21.
   ‘I appeal here also to Europe, not only to European football but the European Union, to look also for this solidarity (with world soccer),’ Blatter said. ‘It is not enough to put money in development clubs all around the world but you should also maintain in the sporting spirit, the spirit of fair play.’

Jurgen Klinsmann, who is set to take over as coach of Bayern Munich in July, has met with the bosses of the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions to outline his vision to speed up Bayern’s game.
   Klinsmann, who guided Germany to third in the 2006 World Cup, met with Bayern’s chiefs on Monday, the day after they were crowned German champions, with rumours circulating he wants to sign AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso.
   ‘Jurgen explained his philosophy in a very convincing way and it was well received by the board of directors,’ said Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer in German tabloid Bild.
   At the three-hour long meeting on Monday, Klinsmann explained why he wants to see Bayern play a faster brand of football.
   He used statistics from England where Premier League players keep the ball for 1.3 seconds on average, compared to 2.4 in the Bundesliga, to explain the need for more speed.
   After spending 69 million euros last summer ($100 million) to recruit a team of stars, there will be not be so many transfers this summer, according to Beckenbauer.
   ‘I do not imagine transfers like we saw with Luca Toni and Franck Ribery,’ added Beckenbauer.
   Italian World Cup winner Gattuso, who is one of the most powerful strikers of the ball in the world, is said to be worth 15 million euros and is believed to be on Klinsmann’s wish list.
   Gattuso would be signed to replace 34-year-old Brazilian Ze Roberto.
   Klinsmann also has to meet with Bayern’s Germany defender Philipp Lahm who has so far refused a contract extension.

Non-European footballers who cannot speak English will be barred from England’s big-money Premier League under tougher immigration rules to be introduced this year, reports said Wednesday.
   A new points-based system covering skilled migrants from outside Europe applying to work in Britain includes the introduction of an English language test, covering everyday phrases and simple conversation.
   Immigration minister Liam Byrne said Premier League footballers from South America, Africa and Asia and other elite sportsmen and women living and working in Britain would not be exempt from the beefed-up rules.
   ‘It is a basic requirement that they have some command of English,’ he said in comments reported by the Guardian daily.
   Byrne said if the more stringent rules had been in place last year, 20,000 fewer migrants would have come to Britain.
   ‘Our new points system means that British jobseekers get the first crack of the whip and that only skilled migrants we actually need will be able to come,’ he said.
   ‘By moving points up or down, we can make sure the numbers we allow into the UK are in line with the needs of business and the country as a whole.’
   Foreign players and coaches have flooded into the English Premier League since increased TV revenues allowed clubs to pay some of the biggest salaries of any football league in Europe.
   One major club, London-based Arsenal, has fielded teams without a single British player and Arsenal are coached by Arsene Wenger, a Frenchman.
   England’s new coach, Italian Fabio Capello, meanwhile, has been speaking his native tongue at press conferences to date claiming his English is not up to the mark.
   Ministers said, however, that entertainers and sportsmen and women coming to Britain to perform at one-off events and festivals, such as the 2012 London Olympics or the annual arts extravaganza at the Edinburgh festival, will not have to fulfil the new requirements.
   They will instead be covered by a new business visitors’ visa to be unveiled later this year.

England coach Fabio Capello believes he will be able to meet the Football Association’s demand to see the national team reach at least the semi-finals of the next World Cup or Euro 2012.
   The English FA revealed their vision for the next four years on Tuesday in a wide-ranging 52-page document which set out a number of policy initiatives for both the men’s and women’s national teams and grassroots football.
   One of the targets is England making the last four of the next World Cup or European Championships after their failure to qualify for Euro 2008.
   But Capello insisted he is optimistic he will be able to deliver the targets laid down by the FA.
   ‘I am not under any pressure – I came here to become England manager with the view and the intent of doing things and I think we can achieve good things because we have got a good team,’ Capello said.
   ‘You need to work all the time knowing that the road is long and you need to improve from one day to the next with the view of achieving the important targets that we have set.
   ‘First and foremost (we must realise) the past is past. I am confident, I have a good team and I can work on it in order to achieve the targets I have been set.
   ‘I need to see what players can give me so in the France game we wanted to experiment and to test various players.
   ‘So I have been experimenting and I will be experimenting in the next couple of games and the important thing is to get ready for the qualifying campaign.’
   The FA will appoint an international performance director who will oversee all national teams below the England men’s senior side. But Capello admitted he was party to the discussion of the position, who will not be his boss, with FA chairman Lord Triesman and chief executive Brian Barwick.
   ‘This person will be in charge of researching, gathering information. Looking at the outside world – the football world in particular,’ Capello told Sky Sports News.
   ‘But also the sports world in order to gather the best possible information and everything we might need to help us achieve our targets.
   ‘This was something that was thought out in a meeting with the chairman and chief executive and it is aimed at giving us the best possible means to obtain what we want.’

Arsene Wenger has warned Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor he can’t afford to rest on his laurels.
   Adebayor has emerged as one of the most improved players in the Premier League after scoring 30 goals in all competitions for the Gunners this season.
   But the Togo international’s barren run of one goal in nine games during February and March was a key factor in Arsenal’s slide out of contention for the Premier League and Wenger is determined to ensure his forward doesn’t get complacent.
   ‘Emmanuel took his tally to 30 for the season with a hat-trick at Derby, but there is some room for him to improve – and that makes me very positive,’ Wenger said.
   ‘I believe he has to keep a good working attitude. We have seen players before, when they start getting the recognition, they ease off in their team work, and very quickly they die.
   ‘I believe if Ade keeps his work ethic, there is still 20 per cent more to come from him. Does he want it enough – to get this extra 20 per cent out? Well that is where his future lies. If you lose that desire, you quickly become a nobody.’
   Wenger’s decision to pay Monaco £7 million for Adebayor in January 2006 raised eyebrows because he had a poor strike-rate in the French league.
   But Adebayor has gradually become more prolific since his move to England and his combination of pace and power proved unstoppable for long periods this term, rewarding Wenger for his belief in the 24-year-old.
   ‘He was never prolific at Monaco, but he has worked hard for it at Arsenal and it highlights that our offensive game favours the strikers.
   ‘You will never starve as a striker at Arsenal – you get the quality balls to work with. Ade will be the first to agree with that.’

Inter president Massimo Moratti has played down a disagreement with coach Roberto Mancini over tactics in Sunday’s 2-1 derby defeat by AC Milan.
   Moratti said earlier in the week that the Serie A leaders, who could have won the title with a victory, had been too cautious in the game.
   Mancini openly said on Tuesday he did not agree.
   After the squad met the Pope ahead an Italian Cup semi-final second leg with Lazio in Rome, Moratti tried to calm the row.
   ‘Many times a person feels obliged to reply to make clear their own position and unintentionally a situation of contrast is born,’ Moratti told reporters on Wednesday.
   ‘In reality we are pulling in the same direction. Also next season? Yes I think so.’
   Mancini’s relationship with Moratti has been under scrutiny since the 43-year-old coach said in March he wanted to leave at the end of the season—only for Moratti to say the next day that Mancini had changed his mind.
   Former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has been heavily linked with Inter, with Italian media unsure whether Mancini has totally changed his mind after the March outburst.
   Moratti gave Pope Benedict an Inter jersey with ‘Benedict XVI’ written in gold and also presented the pontiff with an almanac celebrating Inter’s centenary this year.
   ‘It has been more emotional than I thought. For us it is a great honour,’ Moratti said.

Chelsea have offered Real Madrid $108 million for their defender Sergio Ramos, daily newspaper El Mundo reported Wednesday.
   Real, who clinched their second straight Spanish league title over the weekend, was ‘reflecting on the offer’ for the 21-year-old Spanish international who is under contract with the club until 2013, the newspaper said without citing named sources.
   If the offer is accepted, the former Sevilla defender would become ‘the most expensive defender in history’, it said.
   ‘His transfer would not only be the solution to the problems of the club’s accounts but it would also open the door to the recruitment of a megacrack,’ the newspaper said.
   The report emerges after Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was in Madrid earlier this week for a basketball tournament.
   Ramos has also sparked interest from Italian side AC Milan, according to Spanish media reports.

English first division side Tottenham are in talks with Barcelona over the Spanish giant’s Cameroonian international striker Samuel Eto’o, sports daily Marca reported Wednesday.
   ‘Tottenham’s next target is clear, it is Samuel Eto’o,’ the newspaper said, adding the English club has already approached Barcelona ‘to sound out the possibility of carrying out this recruitment’.
   Barcelona ‘has shown itself to be more than welcoming and the two sides have agreed to meet next week to negotiate the transfer,’ the newspaper added without citing sources.
   The Catalan club will ‘not start discussions below the bar of 35 million euros (54 million dollars)’ for the three-time African Player of the Year, it added.
   ‘For Barcelona the sale of one of its stars is important as it would allow the club to finance the shake-up that they want to carry out in the locker-room, following their second straight season without a trophy,’ the newspaper said.
   Last month Eto’o, who has a contract with Barcelona until 2010, threatened to quit the Spanish giants next season if their title drought continues.
   ‘If things carry on next season like this, well, I want to win titles and if I can’t do that here, then it will be another club,’ he told Catalan radio station RAC1, adding if he left the club he would also leave Spain.

Football fans descending on Switzerland for this summer’s Euro 2008 championships risk going hungry if tonnes of extra potatoes are
   not urgently imported, an industry association warned Tuesday.
   Sales of chips, crisps and other potato products are expected to soar to meet fan demand during the
   championships which run from June 7-29 and some 3,000 tonnes of potatoes need to be imported over the coming month, the Swisspatat industry group said.
   In addition, a further 5,000 tonnes of potato imports are needed between the end of the football and the next harvest to meet regular demand, Swisspatat said.
   The Swiss economy ministry is not yet ready to approve the measure and called on the industry to provide further details, federal agriculture office spokesman Juerg Jordi told Swiss news agency ATS.
   Producers were fiercely critical of the ministry’s decision only last month to import nearly 3,000 tonnes of potatoes from Egypt, saying it not only harmed Swiss farmers but also added to unrest in Egypt, which has seen riots over the soaring cost of foodstuffs in recent months.
   The threatened potato shortage is not the only culinary hurdle Switzerland needs to clear before kick-off.
   MPs have also been debating ways to avoid a ‘worst case scenario’ over supplies of the country’s iconic cervelat sausage.
   The cervelat has come under threat after a ban was slapped on Brazilian cows – whose intestines are a vital ingredient in the sausage’s skin – over mad cow disease concerns in 2006.
   Some 160 million cervelats are consumed in Switzerland each year, and the sausage has been hailed by Swiss parliamentarian Rolf Buettiker as representing ‘down-to-earth simplicity, the romanticism of the campfire, and national pride’.

Avram Grant believes Chelsea were a fading force before he took over and led his team to within touching distance of a Premier League and Champions League double.
   When Grant replaced Jose Mourinho as Chelsea manager in September, the Israeli claims he found a club in danger of imploding.
   Mourinho had fallen out with owner Roman Abramovich and the side’s results had suffered before the Portuguese was forced out.
   But Grant has managed to steady the ship in impressive fashion and now Chelsea could finish the season with two trophies.
   ‘I just need to do my job and be professional as I came here on a mission,’ Grant told the BBC. ‘The club was a good club but on the way down. Now we are on the right way.
   ‘It is very exciting when you are creating something, especially at Chelsea. Here you need to create and win.
   ‘When we lost in the cup it was like a funeral. It is a big challenge for me and one that makes me happy.
   ‘We have fantastic players and fantastic staff. We are also playing good football, exciting football.’
   Manchester United remain favourites to retain the English league title, but Chelsea will snatch the silverware and complete a remarkable revival if they beat Bolton on Sunday and Sir Alex Ferguson’s side draw or lose at Wigan.
   Grant’s team also have the Champions League final against United on May 21 to look forward to and the Blues boss is still hopeful they can go to Moscow as champions.
   ‘We will never give up. No-one thought of us as a candidate in the title race,’ he said. ‘Now only goal difference separates us from United. I know it will be difficult for them at Wigan.’